Connect, Combine, Communicate: Revitalizing the Arts in Canadian Schools

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

Connect, Combine, Communicate comprises 17 papers that were presented at
the first National Symposium on Arts Education, which was held at the
University College of Cape Breton in 1997. Fourteen of the papers are
concerned with revitalizing the arts curriculum in elementary and
secondary schools across Canada, while the other three consider
community partnerships and the extent to which they further arts in the
schools. The papers are well researched, thoughtful, and surprisingly
free of jargon that so often accompanies presentations to a captive
audience of academic specialists.

Although the individual papers are well documented with references,
citations, and quotations, the book unfortunately lacks a general
bibliography as well as an index. A concluding summary detailing the
“specific concerns” and “possible solutions and actions”
referred to in the foreword would also have been useful. Nevertheless,
this record of what took place at the symposium is clearly worthwhile.
Whether changes to the arts curriculum in Canadian schools will be
proposed and implemented as a result of these papers remains to be seen.